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Do you have an opinion on the treatment-free option? The idea that you can adapt the bees through selection to make them resistant enough to mites seems interes
by pedrocr 9y ago
Do you have an opinion on the treatment-free option? The idea that you can adapt the bees through selection to make them resistant enough to mites seems interesting and there are quite a few success stories. Probably none on a large commercial scale though.
- olliej 9y agoThere are actually a few such programs going on in America. I’m aware of strains where the bees bite off the limbs of mites, and some that are more aggressive towards them. There is at least want breeder that has managed to get queens that seem to result in mite free hives (Edit to clarify: resistance to mites isn’t really the problem - the problem is that the mites are very effective at spread more or less all viruses that harm bees, and the feed on the larvae just for good measure. Basically you want bees that actively fight infestation so that they don’t have to become resistant to every single disease)
- roel_v 9y agoThe consensus in the scientific community is that resistant breeds are the real solution, the question is what to do until then. Every apiculture research group has at least some people working on varroa resistant breeds, and questions like whether local breeds (in Europe) are better suited to combat varroa themselves. The whole 'no treatment' controversy is about beekeepers who treat and those who don't in the same area. On the one hand, there are those who treat and create weak colonies, on the other there are the non-treaters who might infect those weak colonies. It's sometimes bitter.
- kokey 9y agoI've seen how healthy the bee populations are at the wineries around Cape Town. The Africanized bee seems to handle the varroa mites quite well and also somehow seems unaffected by widespread neonicotinoid use.